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1/13/15: Pittsburgh Penguins 7 Minnesota Wild 2

Pittsburgh ContributionsR. Bortuzzo – gets to a puck rolling around the boards in the Wild zone along the right-side boards and moves it back to Adams at the right pointC. Adams – takes a slapshot towards the net that hits Falk in the chest in front of the crease and drops to the ice in the slotZ. Sill – shoots the puck on Backstrom when it falls from Falk’s jersey, then swats the rebound to the left for Goc skating in towards the creaseM. Goc – swats the puck into the net over Backstrom and Suter

Minnesota FaultsJ. Falk – shoves Sill several times when the puck drops from his jersey, but doesn’t try to tie his stick up and doesn’t prevent him from playing the puck twiceR. Suter – stands to the left of Backstrom and stands away from the play so he’s unable to play the rebound or defend Goc skating to the creaseJ. Pominville – sees Goc skate past him deeper into the offensive zone and doesn’t stay with him as Goc gets to the loose puck and swats it into the net

2nd Penguins Goal (Perron), Even

Pittsburgh ContributionsS. Crosby – wins an offensive zone faceoff in the right circle to the right-side boards, gets to the puck along the boards, and passes it back to Ehrhoff at the right pointC. Ehrhoff – takes a low shot from the point that hits Backstrom’s left pad and pops out right in front of the creaseD. Perron – skates in front of the net from the right faceoff circle, picks up the puck on his forehand, moves it to the opposite side of the crease to his backhand, and slides the puck off of the post and into the net

Minnesota FaultsM. Koivu – stays loosely on Perron off of the faceoff and gives up positioning to him as they skate to the net, so Perron can easily pick up the rebound off of Backstrom’s pads with no opposition

Minnesota ContributionsJ. Pominville – gets a blocked shot at the right point in the Penguins zone and passes it down to Prosser along the right-side boardsN. Prosser – makes a pass through the high slot to Brodin skating through the left circle by himselfJ. Brodin – skates to the left dot and rips a wrist shot over Fleury’s right shoulder

Pittsburgh FaultsD. Perron – was going to get called for a holding/hooking penalty and Minnesota scored in a 6-on-5 situation with the extra attacker on for the delayed penalty

3rd Penguins Goal (Kunitz), Powerplay

Pittsburgh ContributionsS. Crosby – wins a faceoff in the offensive zone in the right circle back to Letang at the right pointK. Letang – takes a wrist shot from the right point towards Malkin next to the netE. Malkin – redirects the shot so it hits off of Backstrom and drops into the crease behind his right padC. Kunitz – dives and reaches over Backstrom’s right pad to tap the puck into the net

Minnesota FaultsC. Coyle – in the penalty box for trippingJ. Brodin – doesn’t get good positioning on Kunitz in front of the net and tries to shove his body instead of tying up his stick, allowing him to swat the puck into the net

4th Penguins Goal (Sutter), Even

Pittsburgh ContributionsP. Martin – blocks a shot by Vanek in the Penguins zone that sends the puck rebounding out to the neutral zoneB. Sutter – beats Suter to the loose puck at the Wild blue line along the right-side boards, carries the puck to the right faceoff dot, then perfectly places a shot past Backstrom’s blocker into the far corner of the net

Minnesota FaultsR. Suter – loses the race against Sutter to the puck and can’t cut off his angle before he scores

5th Penguins Goal (Martin), Even

Pittsburgh ContributionsN. Spaling – gets a rebound in the right corner of the Wild zone, skates it up towards the right point, then takes a turning wrist shot towards the net, which is blockered away by BackstromP. Martin – has the rebound off of Backstrom’s blocker go off of his right shoulder and back to the front of the crease, where he tries to flick it into the net and it goes off of Prosser’s skate into the net

Minnesota FaultsNone – it was a set of fluky bounces to get the puck to the crease and the puck was going to go into the net even if Prosser’s skate wasn’t there to deflect it

6th Penguins Goal (Letang), Even

Pittsburgh ContributionsC. Kunitz – gets the puck in the neutral zone and throws it back to Ehrhoff in the defensive zoneC. Ehrhoff – passes the puck to Crosby entering the neutral zoneS. Crosby – takes Ehrhoff’s pass off of his back skate, loses control of it temporarily, cuts back to the right-side boards and back into the defensive zone, starts to cross out of the defensive zone but gets pressured again, so he skates to the left-side boards before cutting back into the defensive zone, then he finally passes the puck up to Perron crossing center iceD. Perron – skates the puck through center ice, across the blue line into the Wild zone, and makes a backhand pass to Letang a step ahead of him on his right sideK. Letang – has a couple of steps on Suter to the outside, so he skates the puck into the right side of the slot on his forehand, moves it to his backhand when Backstrom challenges him, and slides the puck into the net past Backstrom’s right pad

Minnesota FaultsR. Suter – shifted too far to the middle of the ice when Perron got the puck even though Perron had two defenders near him, which allowed Letang to get a clear lane down the right side of the zone and an open chance in front of the net

2nd Wild Goal (Fontaine), Even

Minnesota ContributionsJ. Brodin – picks up a puck that drifted back to him in the defensive zone and passes it to his right for SuterR. Suter – takes a couple strides forward and makes a pass to Haula crossing center iceE. Haula – enters the Penguins zone with a 3-on-2 and passes the puck to the right as he crosses into the zone for Fontaine along the right-side boardsJ. Fontaine – skates the puck down to just above the right faceoff dot and rips a wrist shot over Fleury’s glove

Pittsburgh FaultsS. Crosby – gets caught drifting too high in the neutral zone trying to cut off Suter’s passing options and allows the 3-on-2 (or isolated 2-on-1 on the right side)

7th Penguins Goal (Perron), Even

Pittsburgh ContributionsS. Crosby – pokes the puck away from Spurgeon along the left-side boards in the Wild zone as Kunitz is coming in to help outC. Kunitz – picks up the loose puck when Spurgeon loses track of it, skates it below the goal line to the left of the net, stays below the goal line as he skates right next to the net, then passes the puck through the crease in front to Perron skating into the slotD. Perron – one-times the puck past Curry into the net

Minnesota FaultsJ. Spurgeon – loses the puck to Crosby’s poke check despite having a step on him near the boardsJ. Zucker – lazily holds his stick out, but doesn’t skate to Perron entering the slot area or try to cover the passing lane between Kunitz and Perron